Besides their role in marking field boundaries and enclosing livestock, hedges provide important shelter and nesting sites for numerous species of animals, including birds, insects and mammals. They are nature's larder, with pollen, nectar, berries, nuts and seeds through the seasons.
Managing mature hedgerows
Mature hedgerows can be found across our Chilterns countryside sites, but the main concentration is on the Bradenham Estate where the species-rich habitats teem with wildlife. The combination of tall, wide hedges with a wide field margin and hedgerow trees provides one of the best types of farmland wildlife habitats it is possible to achieve.
The National Trust’s tenant farmer, together with rangers and volunteers, manage the hedgerows by working with the natural life cycle they go through as they mature. The hedges are carefully and gently trimmed each year on just one side and are slowly allowed to develop and rejuvenate, to guarantee their long-term success.
Hazel hedges are being coppiced to develop habitats for invertebrates and for mammals like the dormouse, which overwinters in the leaf mould that accumulates within the multi-stemmed base of the hazel stool.
Species diversity
Some of the hedgerows contain up to 15 woody species including hawthorn, hazel, spindle, wayfaring tree and elder, and are up to 10 metres wide reflecting their great age. They are rich in bird life, especially songbirds such as yellowhammers and corn buntings, as well as the more familiar robins, blackcaps, greenfinches and goldfinches.